If We Were In a Better Conference

[uconnfan68]

We haven't had a fully-loaded, proper program since the sanctions in 2013. We've needed grad transfers and Plan C's to fill out the roster every year since then. We haven't gone through proper progressions and chemistry-building under Ollie's tenure; meaning a unit goes through growth like had with Rip & Co 1997 through their title win or Emeka/Ben & Co's growth from 2002 to the title in 2004. Recruiting is an issue, but to a much smaller extent than coaching is. Hell, when Alterique is healthy we have two 5-stars in our backcourt.

Alterique/Jalen/V. Jackson/Larrier/Enoch is enough talent to make the tournament. If we can keep kids here with halfway decent development and coaching then we'd be in an okay situation.

I’ll keep Josh over Enoch every day of the year. Now. And next year he’ll be much improved and stronger.

 

[BlueDogs]

Even the hole known as URI is #22, and please don't tell me they are getting the best recruits down in Kingston or in the A10. Witchita and Cincy in the top 20 tends to negate the inferior conference theory. The only thing inferior is our crappy coach.

 

[Captbluefin]

Teams need to shoot the 3 well.

Teams need to defend the 3 well.

College basketball keys to success in 2018.

Unfortunately we are terrible at both.

 

[Austin316]

No, not in hoops.

My bad.. the AAC is 7th best conference out of the 30+ conferences in the country.

2017-2018 Men's College Basketball Conference RPI - WarrenNolan.com

Based on RPI

 

[Towney007]

It's hard to say.

I think we're definitely in a much better place. I think people really shortchange the psychology of being left out of realignment, but more specifically - having so many valued rivals ripped away from us. No Villanova. No Syracuse. No Georgetown. No Pitt. Even with the lower dregs of the conference, they still drew well enough and traveled that there was history and interest in those games.

I'm not on board with the recuiting issues. I'm just not. We've taken a hit - for sure - but we're still recruiting well enough to be a consistent top 25 team every year and we almost run circles around everyone else in the conference. We should be better than we are.

We're probably in a better spot talent-wise, but with the coaching the way it's been - it's hard for me to envision it being demonstrably better from a results standpoint. The 15 team wasn't a tournament team. The 17 team had tournament caliber talent, but failed in every possible way. This team is a mess. 1 or 2 more talented kids help all those teams - but i'm not sure they help enough.

Where the big issue is - with revenue. Fans aren't interested in the match ups in this conference, even the better ones. And the big match ups don't travel. We play teams like Syracuse on neutral sites. It's hard to maintain that level of interest. So it's killed us at the gate. And then the TV revenue is absolutely a game changer - even if we were just in the new Big East. Figuring out what to do with Ollie wouldn't even be much of a concern. I don't think the buy out is as big a deal as people think it is - but it's certainly a non-factor if we're in a better conference.

So yeah - we're def. better off. But i'm not sure we're better off in the ways people think we are.

 

[UconnFanDC]

Our only losses you could call competitive are WSU, Zona, and Tulsa. Crazy.

Please remove Tulsa. They have bad losses and not going to NCAA turney

 

[UconnFanDC]

Next subject

 

[UConn990411]

Even the hole known as URI is #22, and please don't tell me they are getting the best recruits down in Kingston or in the A10. Witchita and Cincy in the top 20 tends to negate the inferior conference theory. The only thing inferior is our crappy coach.

I would understand it if the argument is that the conference makes it harder to compete at the national level. I think there’s something to that.

But being in a crappy conference doesn’t explain why UConn can’t complete for titles for said crappy conference.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Please remove Tulsa. They have bad losses and not going to NCAA turney

So.... it wasn’t a competitive game??

 

[Tuna]

Even the hole known as URI is #22, and please don't tell me they are getting the best recruits down in Kingston or in the A10. Witchita and Cincy in the top 20 tends to negate the inferior conference theory. The only thing inferior is our crappy coach.

5 of their top 6 scorers are seniors. Experience matters. See where they are next year.

 

[A10 fan]

This is one of those unanswerable questions. You can easily imagine that there would be some better players if UConn were in the ACC or BE. Then again, Mighty Georgetown has become a cupcake in the BE, so there is the possibility that UConn would be struggling mightily over there, especially if Ollie is actually the biggest problem.

 

[Zissou]

My bad.. the AAC is 7th best conference out of the 30+ conferences in the country.

2017-2018 Men's College Basketball Conference RPI - WarrenNolan.com

Based on RPI

P7 patches for all of the AAC basketball unis.

 

[uconNYC]

We are not just losing OOC, but to a bunch of mediocre AAC teams. Can't blame that on conference affiliation.

 

[Slasher]

P7 patches for all of the AAC basketball unis.

Laugh all you want, but RPI is not the greatest measure. How about projected tourney teams? That's a little better. According to BracketMatrix (a conglomeration of all bracket predictions):

1. Big East 7/10 (70%)
1. Big 12 7/10 (70%)
3. ACC 9/14 (64%)
4. SEC 7/14 (50%)
5. AAC 4/12 (33%)
6. Pac-12 3/12 (25%)
7. B1G 3/14 (21%)
8. WCC 2/10 (20%)
9-32 One bid leagues

So on a percentage basis, the AAC is better than the Pac-12 and the B1G. Now it may not eventually play out this way, but this is the consensus right now.